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here are MANY benefits to exercise. Everyone understands that exercise helps with maintaining a healthy body weight, it increases physical abilities in cardiovascular endurance, muscle endurance and muscle strength. But there’s SO much more that exercise does for you.
Let’s specifically talk about some ways that exercise can benefit employees who are participating in workplace wellness programs. This can mean participating in a range of activities from walking on your lunch break, to organised group fitness session with co-workers before, during or after work. We spend almost one third of our adult lives at work, so it’s important that we make this an enjoyable time. You know what they say, if you love your job you’ll never work a day in your life! Exercise at work provides a lot of benefits relating to mental health and happiness, here’s how:
- Overcoming physical limitations and seeing progress boosts self-confidence and self-appreciation
- Including regular exercise in your life gives you structure and helps develop an understanding of commitment to something meaningful.
- Exercise takes you away from your worries while you focus on the task at hand,– there is no time to stress about anything other than exactly what you’re doing.
- Exercise increases your ability to concentrate and mental sharpness, and helps prevent the natural age-related decline in brain function.
- Exercise increases energy levels and boosts productivity – improving your performance at work
- Staying active increases your creativity and problem solving skills, which is strongly linked to well-being, and also helps with challenging work tasks
- Being active uplifts your mood and releases ‘happy hormones’ – happy employees are more productive employees!
- Exercise increases your appetite, which helps with enjoyment of food and helps you make better food choices.
- Activity helps you feel young
- Physical activity reduces feelings of stress, anxiety and depression
- Completing exercise with your co-workers is a great team-building activity and can improve communication and social relationships between the group.
- Being given the benefit of workplace wellness programs helps your to feel appreciated, when you feel appreciated at work you are more likely to feel satisfied in your role and less likely to want to leave, giving you better job security and daily fulfillment.
So many reasons to get your workplace on board with a Corporate Wellness program and start getting happy!